Life is Suffering: Buddhist Pain as Both Friend and Foe Sharisse Kanet, Wesleyan University

Pain serves a somewhat different purpose in Eastern philosophies than in Western philosophies. While we in the west tend to give the issue of pain serious consideration, discussions of pain are much less frequent in Eastern traditions. It is not that those traditions deny pain. On the contrary, pain is such an established part of life that it is hardly worth mentioning, except in passing. This lack of consideration is not a refusal of acknowledgement so much as it is a refusal to give pain more bandwidth than other, more important issues.

In this attitude, Buddhism is an exception. The first Noble Truth of Buddhism asserts “Life is suffering.” Contrary to a common interpretation, this is meant as a bare statement of fact, a starting point, if you will, for making more profound and fundamental realizations. To live is to suffer. We cannot exist on this Earth without experiencing pain in its various forms. Luckily, the Buddha did not leave us with this seemingly pessimistic statement, and the other three Noble Truths are meant to show us the way out of suffering.

Thus we see the first prong of Buddhism’s view on suffering, that it is something to avoid, and that we can (mostly) avoid through certain methodologies and practices. However, there is another, equally important aspect to the experience of pain: pain as a tool. Buddhism claims that pain is a teacher. First, it teaches us about our human condition, impermanent beings who are misguided as to our true natures. Second, it teaches us about empathy for others. Through empathy, we are eventually able to realize that the many disparate lives on this planet are, in fact, one life. Such lofty ideas begin with pain, begin with suffering, and the acknowledgement that unpleasant experiences are prerequisites both for life and for learning. ​Even though many forms Buddhism do not themselves address the role of pain in the medical arena, I believe we can export the Buddhist viewpoint to meaningfully expand our relationship with pain in Western medicine. We often aim to eliminate pain as soon as it arises and to whatever extent possible, seeing it only as an evil. Buddhism shows us that there is another side to that coin, that we can live with and grow from pain, even as we try to reduce it. That pain itself tells us something important about human life, and can help us understand ourselves and the world in a way that a life without pain would not.